Friday, April 27, 2012

Agustín Pichot´s try in 2007 Top 14 Final

Three months before the kick-off of Rugby World Cup 2007, Stade Français took on Clermont Auvergne in the Top 14 Final at the same venue as the sports showcase tournament´s opening fixture - the Stade de France. The match marked history with a foreign player, Agustín Pichot, captaining a team to glory in French rugby. Pichot´s try in the 68th minute was the first of the match and proved to be the turning point in the final as Clermont had been leading 15-9 with Australian Brock James responsible for all his teams points thanks to his goalkicking. The try was a great way of showing kids the art of the scrumhalf position as Pichot bossed around his forwards to advance with the players doing what they were told. At the same time he remained in constant contact with his flyhalf and with Stade Français four metres from the try line and looking dangerous Pichot sold a dummy pass to his flyhalf which Clermont bought

Pichot was joined by three fellow Pumas in the Stade Français team that evening. Rodrigo Roncero and Pedro Ledesma were the teams starting props and Juan Martín Hernández was the flyhalf. There was a forth Argentine in the team with the Argentine-Italian, Sergio Parisse coming off the bench in the secondhalf. Clermont also had three Argentine players with Mario Ledesma starting at hooker and Martín Scelzo at tighthead prop and backrower Gonzalo Longo entered the match as a secondhalf replacement.

Hernández was the player of the match and was in the best form of his career he landed the conversion to put Stade Français in the lead. Clermont reclaimed the lead with James landing his sixth penalty but it was to be Stade Français´day as Hernández threw a long cut out pass to Australian international Radiki Samo who dived over in the corner. With Hernández´s conversion, the Parisians claimed the title with a 23-18 victory.